Here's a
MAP based on information from the articles linked below.
Thanks for that map, Bessie. I had looked at another one previously posted on this thread, but now something really stuck out to me after viewing your map.
I don't believe Jessica ever went to the car wash, which is
NORTH of her house and all the rest of the activity. Here's why.
Jessica was seen (and videotaped) at the McCullars First Stop convenience store in Courtland soon after leaving her mother's house. The store is south of where her mother lives. The store clerk said when Jessica drove off, she turned
SOUTH onto Hwy 51, not NORTH. Turning north would have taken her to Batesville and the car wash, but she went south instead. This is important.
Jessica also filled her gas tank with $14 worth of gas instead of her usual $5 gasoline purchase. When the clerk asker her why she had bought more, she said she was "going somewhere." It is only 8 minutes drive north from Courtland to Batesville. A sixteen minute round-trip would take less than a gallon of gas. At today's prices, $5 worth of gasoline would have been close to two gallons of gasoline. Jessica wasn't buying enough gas ($14 worth/5 gallons) to get to Batesville and back. In my opinion, because of the amount of gas Jessica bought and the fact she turned SOUTH instead of north from the convenience store, the reported "going somewhere" wasn't to the car wash in Batesville.
My thoughts, based on the evidence revealed to date:
Jessica may, or may not, have planned to wash her car, but that was the story she told to her mom. We all know teenagers who fudge the truth a bit and say they are going to do something, but end up running by a friend's house, etc. On the other hand, if Jessica did intend to get her car washed after going to the convenience store, then she changed her mind ... perhaps, after she received a phone call either inviting her to go somewhere, to come see them, or asking her stop by a party.
There is almost an hour and a half between the time Jessica left the convenience store and when the volunteer fire department found her burned body beside her car, which was still in flames. In fact, the firemen were concerned the fire would spread to the rest of the wooded area, so three of them worked furiously to put out the fire while a fourth one tried to comfort Jessica.
That missing 90 minutes is a long time for Jessica just to be driving around, especially if she did not go to Batesville. (We have not had any corroborating witnesses or evidence that she was ever at the car wash there. Please correct me if I am wrong.) I believe everything that happened to Jessica happened in an area SOUTH of the convenience store and ended on a remote part of Herron Road. If the fire department hadn't been on a call nearby, it is doubtful they would have arrived before Jessica died and in time to hear anything she might have said. I believe her killer counted on this. They could not have known the fire department would get to the crime scene before Jessica's death.
Obviously, Jessica and her car were sitting on a small embankment next to a fenced driveway pull-off. It looks like there would have been room for two cars in that driveway if someone just wanted to pull over and talk. Why was Jessica's car driven up the embankment? Was she being chased by another car after an argument? Did someone in the car with Jessica grab the steering wheel and make Jessica go off the road? Did someone in another car try to force Jessica off the road, and she tried to turn into the fenced driveway, but her speed made her miss and go up the embankment? Did they pull in behind her, forcing her to stay there, then get in the car with her?
Hopefully, the results of the complete autopsy and analysis of Jessica's cell phone pings and call record will give LE more clues to her killer. It is difficult to wait for justice in such a horrific case.